The Five Elders sat on the sofa.
Even now, they had yet to recover from that terrifying punishment. Imu's punishment was not something so easily endured. That black-red lightning had struck directly at their souls.
Pain like that could never be compared to mere physical suffering.
But no matter how difficult it was to recover, the matter still had to be resolved.
The problem was: how?
One issue after another came crashing down on them.
Putting aside what kind of massive waves this incident would stir up across the sea, the reconstruction of the Holy Land alone would cost an astronomical sum.
More than half of the Celestial Dragons' residences had been destroyed. Just rebuilding those outrageously luxurious mansions would require an astronomical amount of money, not to mention recruiting replacements for all the personnel who had died.
The World Government's financial reserves were now far inferior to what they had once been. Roldy had taken far too much of the Underworld 's share, and their days had already been rather tight.
And now, an extremely awkward situation had occurred.
Their financial reserves had run dry…
The mighty Five Elders, worrying over money one day?
How absurd.
How laughable.
They were the five people who stood at the very pinnacle of authority in this world!
"The Holy Land has been destroyed. Dead personnel need to be replaced. The nobles' emotions need to be pacified… Gentlemen, by conservative estimate, we need five hundred billion Berries ."
Saint Jaygarcia Saturn calculated the minimum amount with a bitter expression.
They needed five hundred billion Berries .
This was already as tight as it could possibly be. In fact, Saturn had not even included compensation for the dead personnel in the calculation.
As for that number… it was also thanks to the fact that enough Celestial Dragons had died.
Those people no longer needed to be pacified.
The other four exchanged looks.
The World Government did have many extremely profitable sources of income, but all of them required time.
"Saturn, the research funds for the science division… retrieve some of them first."
Saint Topman Warcury was utterly helpless and could only resort to this desperate measure.
Unlike usual, however, Saint Jaygarcia Saturn did not object.
He sighed.
"That's the only option. Aside from the research funding for Lord Imu's Flame Seed Project, all other research projects will be suspended for now. However, once the next round of Heavenly Tribute is delivered to the Holy Land, the science division's research funds must be replenished."
The other four all nodded in agreement.
The science division's research funds were indeed very important, and those research projects could not remain stopped.
Fortunately, the next round of Heavenly Tribute would soon be collected. Replenishing the funds then would be perfectly reasonable.
"However, colleagues, the science division can provide at most two hundred billion Berries !"
Saturn added one final blow.
The expressions of the others all stiffened at once.
Saint Ethanbaron V. Nusjuro could not help asking, "Wasn't the last round of research funding sent over just two months ago? That was a full eight hundred billion Berries ! How could it have been used so quickly?"
"There's no helping it. That fellow Vegapunk has achieved another breakthrough in his research and has already entered the next stage. Naturally, the required funding has increased."
Saint Jaygarcia Saturn shook his head helplessly.
There was nothing he could do about it.
After all, it was not as if he could tell them the truth.
That he had privately embezzled more than three hundred billion Berries purely to research the war robot left behind by that terrifying man from eight hundred years ago…
If such a thing were exposed, money would only be one side of the issue.
The other side was that Lord Imu would absolutely cut off his head!
The room fell silent again.
Finally, Saint Jaygarcia Saturn could not help speaking.
"We don't have money, but someone else does. How about…"
Hearing this, Saint Shepherd Ju Peter's eyes lit up.
"Exactly! We can immediately levy Heavenly Tribute! This time, we'll increase the amount by another thirty percent!"
"Impossible."
Saint Topman Warcury shook his head.
It was not because he pitied the common people, but because…
"Levying Heavenly Tribute so frequently is useless. Don't forget, the last Heavenly Tribute was only delivered four days ago. Even if we levy it again, those kingdoms absolutely won't be able to pay. And if we force those affiliated nations until they can no longer see any path to survival…"
He did not finish his sentence, but the idea naturally died there.
"You misunderstood what I meant!"
Saint Jaygarcia Saturn smiled smugly.
None of them had thought of it.
Only he had.
Didn't that mean his wisdom surpassed the others?
"Oh?"
"Don't forget, where is all the money from the Underworld flowing now?"
Everyone's eyes lit up at once.
That was right.
How had they forgotten that brat?
Fitt Roldy!
It would not be an exaggeration to call that man the richest person in the world.
How much of the Underworld 's share had the World Government originally controlled? Excluding those people scraping by in the cracks, Roldy alone now occupied sixty-five percent of it.
Perhaps the pure profit that actually reached his hands would be reduced by quite a lot, but that man absolutely had more than one trillion Berries in his possession right now!
"Good! Then let's go to war!"
Saint Shepherd Ju Peter spoke impatiently.
However, the way the others looked at him gradually became strange…
What kind of gaze was that?
It was probably the same kind of look one gave an idiot.
Seeming to realize that his words were inappropriate, Saint Shepherd Ju Peter very sensibly closed his mouth.
For this sort of matter, it was better to leave it to those whose brains worked properly.
Saint Topman Warcury thought for a while. Unable to find a better solution, he could only seriously consider Saturn's proposal.
"Will that brat really hand over the money?"
"We'll borrow it, of course! We'll borrow a few hundred billion Berries from that brat and give him some benefits. I imagine he shouldn't refuse."
"Benefits? What benefits?"
"We'll just give him an additional ten percent interest."
"Hah? Interest? With how rich that brat is, would he even care about such pocket change?"
The group discussed it back and forth.
In the end, a Den Den Mushi call was made to Roldy, who was currently in the Sabaody Archipelago.
There was no other way.
Their final decision was still…
Borrow money!
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